The present invention relates to a coil inserter for binding sheets, and in particular to a compact portable coil inserter that can be quickly and easily adapted to accommodate a variety of sizes and types of helical coils and stacked sheets.
Stacked sheets of paper may be bound together by inserting a spiral or helical coil into a row of perforations along a side edge of the sheets during fabrication of spiral-bound notebooks, calendars, and the like. Coiling machines used for fabrication of spiral-bound notebooks and the like are often specially made, large machines designed for high volume production. Such machines are relatively expensive, such that high volume rates of production are required to justify the capital investment in the machinery. Smaller, "table top," coil inserting machines have been developed for inserting helical coils in stacks of sheets when a relatively low number of the reports, manuals, or the like are being produced. Such machines may be used at, for example, a commercial photocopying establishment. Customers may require binding of various types and numbers of sheet stock, requiring a range of coil sizes. High volume fabricating machines used to manufacture large volumes of spiral-bound notebooks and the like are generally not cost-effective for such applications, and further, cannot be readily reconfigured to handle various coil sizes and/or sheet stock types.
Helical coils may be made from a variety of materials, such as polymers and metals. Helical coils are available in a variety of diameters corresponding to the overall thickness of the stacked sheet of papers or other sheets of material being bound together. During insertion of the coil, the coil is rotated and positioned along the side edge of the sheets having the perforations, such that the end of the coil travels through the passageway formed by the aligned perforations in the sheets. Various problems have been encountered during the coil insertion process, including the tendency of the end of the coil to catch, or otherwise become stuck, preventing further rotation and insertion of the coil in the stack of sheets, especially when the stack of sheets is quite thick. Furthermore, because existing machines may be useable with a relatively limited number of coil sizes, different machines may be required for extra large or small coil sizes corresponding to thick or thin stacks of sheets. The stacked sheets may include tabbed stock having an irregular side edge due to the tab opposite the edge having the row of perforations. The irregular edge may create difficulty in aligning the perforations for insertion of the helical coil. Accordingly, a coil-inserting machine solving the above-identified problems is needed.